One of the easiest foods to make is refried beans. So why do I always buy a can of them? Good old convenience I suppose. Well in my ongoing efforts to eliminate as many cans and boxes, I discovered a great way to make my own. And unlike other scratch vs. prepared, this one is actually more cost-effective to make from scratch.
Homemade Refried Style Beans
3 cups dry pinto beans (I use organic)
1 medium onion, quartered
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 teaspoons salt
9 cups water
Rinse beans. Put beans, onion, garlic, salt and water in crock pot. Cover and cook on high for 6 hours. Strain beans, reserving the liquid. Mash beans adding liquid as needed for desired consistency.
There are variations on this recipe that add black pepper, diced jalapeno and/or cumin. I've tried it with jalapeno but prefer it without mainly because it's too spicy for my son. I've also tried it with pepper and without, liked it better without. As you can see, there is a lot of room for variation and putting your own spin on this basic recipe. Enjoy!
Hey Lori!
ReplyDeleteI'm Chef Corey from Family Fresh Meals.We just started a new recipe Linky called Sunday Funday.This recipe would be perfect for the first week theme CROCKPOT. Each week will be a new theme.Once this Sunday Funday gets going,I would LOVE to do a random gift card giveaway each week. But I am going to need a good amount of posts to start that,so come join the fun. At the end of the week,a recipe/blog will be picked at random to be the featured recipe for the following week. Hope you stop by and join!
http://familyfreshmeals.blogspot.com/2011/11/sunday-funday-recipe-of-week.html
XO Chef Corey